Worse is those places where on your birthday YOU'RE supposed to bring in the cake or get the drinks in. Is this opposites world?? It's my birthday - give me everything that's coming to me while I sit down wearing a paper crown with my age printed on it

I don't think I can reconcile both statements - not getting the food in yourself on your own birthday means you SHOULD bring the food to this bruiser's picnic, which I hate the idea of. But if it's my birthday picnic, I don't want to be bringing food for that either.

Short answer: you shouldn't have to bring anything, except when it is my birthday in which case you better bring lots of things

whenever there's an event and you tell everyone to bring a dish, at least 10 people will be mindless lazy droning sheeple (yeah, SHEEPLE) and bring potato salad or egg salad. or worse, a big bag of crisps. these are all staples of the party and or picnic, but it's best if you just work on the assumption that somebody else will be doing that.